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This will be the first of many avocado recipes now that they are in season. I love avocado. We collected some windfalls this morning while walking the dog. We both had a real fruitarian moment!

When my Dad lived in Spain a lovely girl called Patricia who was a fruitarian used to teach him Spanish. Her and a group of her friends lived in tents along the river, it was a sort of hippy commune really. Anyway they were all fruitarians which meant that they only ate fruit & nuts that had fallen naturally from the tree.

They also did odd jobs for people. Her boyfriend built a rabbit run with two separate hutches in my Dad’s garden when we first moved to Spain 10 years ago. We brought our two rabbits (Prada & Gucci) from England with us. We flew Easyjet and they flew British Airways the day before so my dad had to pick them up from the airport in Malaga. He said that the airport staff couldn’t believe what he was doing when they came out in their little carry cases on the baggage reclaim belt! The Spanish don’t have rabbits as pets they are food. They all had a good laugh at him anyway.

So Patricia’s boyfriend Xema had to build two separate rabbit runs beacuse Prada & Gucci were brothers and would fight all the time if we didn’t keep them apart. They thought we were mad.

Patricia rode her bike everywhere in a handmade straw hat. She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever met, she always looked healthy and glowing. One day my dad offered her a drink of something (probably wine!) and she declined saying “solo agua como un flor” which means” just water like a flower”. And she was a beautiful flower….

So back to our windfallen avocados. A quick, easy and tasty salad was on the menu as we were both starving and a bit windbeaten after our walk.

Guacamole & Soft Boiled Egg Salad

serves 2 vegetarian

1 ripe avocado

2 eggs

some mixed salad leaves (watercress or rocket is good)

a small amount of red onion finely chopped

1/2 tsp minced garlic & chilli

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 a lime

1 or 2 tbsp mayonnaise

salt & black pepper

olive oil

breadcrumbs (Fried in olive oil with salt, pepper & chilli flakes)

fresh chives or coriander

First put a small pan of water on to boil. When the water is boiling carefully lower in the eggs, on a large spoon, into the water. Turn the heat down to medium high and boil for 6/7 minutes.

Meanwhile scoop out the avocado flesh, put it into a bowl with some lime juice (about 1/4 lime) and mash it with a fork. Add the onion, chilli, garlic, cumin, mayonnaise and season well with salt and pepper. Mix together well.

After 6/7 minutes of cooking tip the boiling water out of the pan and run the cold water tap into the pan to cool down the eggs. Roll the eggs on a surface to break the shells and then peel them. Cut into quarters.

Put the salad leaves on a plate, dress with olive oil, a squeeze of lime juice, salt & pepper. Put a couple of spoonfuls of the guacamole in the centre and place the eggs around it. Top with chopped chives and toasted breadcrumbs.

Serve with some nice bread or maybe some warmed tortillas. Watch out for the wasps, can you spot it?!

3 Responses to “Guacamole and Soft Boiled Egg Salad”

Avocado = hands down my favourite food! It’s so creamy, smooth and amazingly versatile. Still, my favourite way to eat it is ‘naked’ – just a whole avocado sliced in half and served straight up with a little sea salt. Beautiful!
PS I loved your story of the frutarian lady, Patricia.

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